Tag: wips

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The Need to Escape

Last train to knitsville project photoI’m feeling the need to escape. Went to a peace circle to speak about violence and it occurred to me the violent people weren’t there. So what good did we do? Of course we did good: we shared differently similar stories. We talked about the actions we could take and we now need a system where we hold ourselves – and each other – accountable.

It was with a group called the Community of Congregations.

I wore my shirt that says, I’d rather be knitting. And I rather wished I was.

When I came home, it was with the idea I would continue doing my work and looking at what’s going on; there’s not much knitting going on here, either. There are four projects represented here and only on is being knitted. But have noticed the progress on the reverse entrelac piece? Nice, huh?

Starting from the left: the black and gold is a Christmas stocking. So is the cream and red. That is a finished object and I will show it to you later. Next, that little bitty thing between the black and gold and the entrelac is a stocking cap order and the only knitted item. Then the entrelac and finally another square for the sample afghan. That is square 6 or 7 of 10. The collective is almost complete.

I have three other hats I need to make. I will be praying over them and every project I have. Praying that wherever that items winds up; whomever it belongs to, that they be people and places of peace, justice, truth and love. And I wish the same for you.

 

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Things Going On

I have some things going on. Knit things and crochet things. Blanket things, hat things. Gift things and order things. Even a heartbreak. There are things going on.

So, in the lower right is the wedding afghan. Square no. 4. It’s a little cable, a little lace and a little popcorn stitch. It’s going to take a minute because there is a 24 row repeat. I was on row 14 when I messed it up and had to frog back to row 8. It’ll take more than a minute.

In the upper right corner is the blanket for Lucas. I’m glad for the photo because it shows the purple. It doesn’t look purple when I look at it and I’m also loving the gray. He’s off to Loras College and their colors are Loras Gold, Loras Purple and Loras Gray. My colors are gold, purple and medium gray. Sentiment will make up the rest, I hope.

The lower left is another version of my Rasta Slouch – this is black tweed and the upper left is the beginning of a pair of fingerless mints that are part of an order. So, you see – busy.

Even though the wedding afghan and the Lucas Loras afgan will be given away, they will still be in the shop. They will be customizable for whatever color scheme someone needs: weddings, sororities, schools. For anything you wish, really.

There are deadlines on three of these projects so work is going on most of the time. These are the things I love to do. I am digging on the afghans. I will need until October to finish the wedding one. Good thing the wedding is the last week in October. I have about 3 months to get it done. The mittens and the long sleeves I need to knit have to be out in a few weeks and the Lucas blanket has to be done in another week or so.

I’ve been know to fall asleep knitting and can knit with my eyes closed. This skill might come in handy.

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Works In Progress

I have a few works in progress. Here are all my project bags. Yep. I’ve got something going in each of these. This is what it’s like in design mode. I start a set of projects – there’s also a digital project that resides on the iPad – and when the amount of WIPs get overwhelming, I pick the first one and start on it in earnest.
So what project is earnestly being worked?

Two panels of the Boho Petal Afghan are complete. I thought there might be four panels but I think five is more likely. I also thought this might be ready in about 10 days but I’m not sure about that, either. This will be going into the shop on Go Imagine as ready to ship. I don’t think it will go onto the Etsy site.

 

What else is in the bags? There’s a two toned stocking cap, a lite cotton scarf, another BoHo piece; this one a prayer shawl, a triangle shaped scarf and maybe something else I can’t remember at the moment. Most of the yarn came straight outta the stash which explains the boho themed items. That means as I pull yarns out of the bins and into the WIP bags, more yarn can go into the bins. This is why the range free yarn looks a little less wild. Not quite domesticated but that’s fine.

In face, the domesticated yarn doesn’t mind in the least. They are behind the doors in the privacy of their sanctuary and are happy to let the free range yarn do all the work.

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Behind the Curtain

Thought I would give you a little peek behind the curtain. See that? That’s what I have going on at the moment. Almost. There are three projects missing. This is what’s going on right now in Knitsville. Finally finished the front (or back) of the poncho. Almost done with the 2nd of 3 golf club covers. There are also two hats in there. And a bag of yarn I’m not using.

So what’s missing? An afghan. A new scarf I’m designing and a bandana from Purl Soho.

There is busyness in the business. These are good times. 

In the other news, I have taken some more selfies and I guess they will be coming in other posts. As of today, I am -58lbs. 56 days and 58 lbs. Not bad at all. I can take averaging more than a lb a day. I can take 1/2 pound a day so I’m not blocking the blessings by wishing for something different. But enough of that. Back to knitting.

I am having the urge to buy yarn. When I don’t need it. When the yarn I want to buy is sitting in the closet and I think there’s some in free range. I am on the lookout for some chunky yarn and since I can’t get the anniversary cakes anymore, I’m thinking Brett Marble Chunky. I think I bought some the last year or so. The fact I can’t remember should tell me something. But what it seems to say is I should get some because I only have one skein of the colors I bought that’s sitting in the closet with the domesticated yarn. Then I look on the Premier yarn site and they have chunky galore and I think I will be buy from there. I probably will buy from there. They have solids, tweeds and other chunky goodness.

Heaven help me.

 

 

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Nowhere Fast

If you’re reading this anywhere in the world, I don’t have to tell you about the Coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic/ I am in Illinois, Chicago, to be exact and we are under sheltering orders until the end of the month – or we were. The governor extended it to the end of May but some businesses are reopening.So I am going nowhere fast.

For me, it doesn’t make that much of a difference because I work from home and my boss didn’t give me any time off.

The condo is filling up with boxes and the move has been scheduled. I am packing/cleaning. I have done some knitting but no photography. But this is what I’ve got thus far: The mittens to match the hat. The hat is at the condo and I haven’t been there since Easter. The Shale Cowl is really pretty and it’s now complete. I have another one in shades of gray that’s about a day away and another hat.

I was not going to jump on the mask train but along with the extended order came the mandatory wearing of face coverings. Might as well make some pretty ones. They aren’t medical grade so I don’t have to pretend they are anything other than pretty mouth coverings. I can make them in cotton or any of the blends or acrylic. 

I did have some sales. A pleasant surprise. If you feel the need to go shopping – here’s my shop.

I was going to take a photo of all my needles. They were all in one place for a hot minute but I packed some of them away and don’t want to pull them out until they are at new place. I had to select a different sleeper sofa. Mr. Honey took measurements and it won’t fit through the space. Picked put a smaller one that costs more – sigh.

Moving is not for the faint of heart. I hope I am doing this again any time soon. Unless I can find a way to be younger. A younger me can handle it.

 

 

 

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The Diurnal Tide

Lest you think there is really nothing going on here in Knitsville, let me assure you the citizens of our fair village are keeping an eye on me. At least one eye each. I have several projects going on with the idea of finishing each of them by the end of September.

  1. The Do You Collection. I am on item 4/10. It’s a pattern. A cable and lace hat. It’s already on the needles. I’m on the ribbing and that leaves me a minute to think about how the rest of it is going to go. Slouchy or beanie? Slouchy. Big increases or small? Just enough.
  2. The Elizabeth sweater. It is going along and I look at the calendar and look at the fact that I started over and I’m still on the first part of the first part and I think maybe I need to work on it for more than part of an hour a day. On the other hand, knit math has been very good to me and I don’t want to make the knit gods angry by appearing greedy. Besides, there’s other knitting to be done. (See 1 above and 4 below.)
  3. The decluttering of the yarn room. This is where the diurnal tide has hit me. One the one hand, the high is there because I am doing the cleaning and decluttering and it really looks good. On the other hand, man, how the heck did it get so out of hand and now I understand why Mr. Honey said he had to create a work around rather than nag me constantly. I appreciate it. I appreciate what he has suffered. That’s the low tide.

4. The wedding afghan is going on as well. Now that, I did take a photo of.This is where it was when last I worked on it. It was looking promising. The photo below is where it is now.

I counted the squares and calculated how many I have left to get it to square off. This is going to have me tearing my hair out which makes me grateful I have a very short hair cut to begin with. No one will really notice anything is amiss. 

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s really pretty. It’s stunning. And again, the diurnal tide plays with me. I started this on purpose and now that’s there’s a finite amount of time to get it done, I will have to resolve myself to watching episodes of Criminal Minds while working on it followed by watching the 1965 version of Cinderella to keep me from losing my criminal mind.

There has to be more progress made before the weekend. We are headed to San Antonio. We are going for a memorial service for a cousin I played with as a child. It’s a quick turnaround and then shortly after, we (and the afghan) will be headed to Phoenix for the wedding.

Tides.

 

 

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Plan Your Work

There’s a phrase I love – plan your work then work your plan. I think that’s a great philosophy to go about business and sometimes even life. And it’s something I have done in both business and life but I’ve run into a snag.

Remember this? It’s an afghan in the making. It’s been in the making for a year. She has a sibling. 

The sibling has an even bigger mouth than her sister. I touched her the other day and it was like opening the flood gates. “So you still know who I am!” “You haven’t forgotten me!” “When you gonna finish me up, huh?”

The last WIP is not exactly a sibling. It’s a sweater the daughter of a friend started and really, let’s say, veered off course, and I am trying to correct it and it’s taking some time because she got the wrong yarn for the sweater with the wrong needles and made some interesting choices where the yarn was all chopped up. It was supposed to be done 4 months ago. It needs to be done by October. So does one of these afghans because it’s going to my niece for her wedding. 

The thing is, I don’t know how I’m going to work them into the system. It has to be deliberate or else they will languish. I don’t want to use free time for them and I’ve been thinking of adding afghans back in the shop. They were big for me when I started and chose to do hats over them. They will definitely be the high end, rare, hard to find item. I do have one in the shop but it’s a custom order, The ones that sold were ready to go. But it will be months before an afghan makes it to my collections list. Once there, I will have a good chunk of them in the plans. So do I wait for one until then?

That seems the good bet for the more patient of the afghans. When it comes time to work on a blanket, there she will be and part of the fold. For the squeaky wheel, since she is made up of little leaf motifs, I will work up a couple of the leaves and then add them to her. And I will work on the sweater at the end of the knit day. I watch a movie a day and that will be the time to get that done.

Plan your work and work your plan. I feel better about things already.